There have conventionally been a service providing apparatus and a service providing system in which a printer (including a copier and a multifunction device) and a computer are connected over a network.
For example, with the rapid progress of the Internet communication, network supported devices are rapidly being progressed in a manner such that not only the conventional personal computers but also user interactive devices such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistance), a cellular phone, and the like, and image processing devices such as a scanner, a printer, a copying machine, a digital camera, and the like, a consumer electric appliances such as television, an air conditioner, a refrigerator, and the like, are made to communicate over networks.
In this situation, to enhance the convenience and easiness in using these network-capable devices, various protocols such as automatic setting means for a network address, discovery means for a network device, automatic configuration means for an application software, a utility software, an operating system to control network-capable devices have been proposed. Especially, the UPnP (registered trademark) mainly developed by Microsoft, BMLinkS (registered trademark) specified by JBMIA (Japan Business Machine Industry Association) and Rendezvous (registered trademark) supported by Apple OS X are well known protocols to plug and play network supported devices.
On the other hand, various improving means have been applied to reduce the power consumption by these network-capable devices from the energy savings viewpoint. The power consumption of a device driven by a small battery such as a PDA, a cellular phone, etc., is to be reduced for a long-time use. The reduced power consumption is an important factor of the diffusion of products such as a printer, a copying machine equipped with a thermal fixer which normally record large power consumption.
Normally, when these devices are not operated for a predetermined period, or kept in an idle status without performing communications with other devices for a predetermined period, then change into a sleep mode. In the sleep mode, electric power is supplied only to a one-chip microcomputer, a LAN controller, etc., which are low voltage devices, thereby maintaining the minimal communications capabilities with the power consumption reduced by stopping supply of unnecessary power.
In releasing the sleep mode, these devices monitor a packet having a specific data format, and when they receive the packet having a specific data format, the sleep mode is released and the normal communications process can be resumed (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H05-175964).
Furthermore, there is also a method proposed for automatically activating the resume feature of equipment such as a personal computer, etc., without disconnecting the virtual circuit of a LAN.
Additionally, in relation to a data processing device of standalone type, various devices using a protocol for plug and play represented by multiphase UPnP (registered trademark), BMLinkS (registered trademark), and Rendezvous (registered trademark) which install various applications by checking the status of the system configuration of hardware having plug and play extended in a network have been proposed for home electric appliances, computer system, etc., which are composed of various phases.
However, there have been the following problems with the above-mentioned conventional technologies.
For example, when a printer changes into the sleep mode, the low voltage devices such as the one chip microcomputer, the LAN controller, etc., take charge of the network processing thereafter. Since the devices such as the one chip microcomputer, the LAN controller, etc., are not intelligent, they cannot perform a predetermined process using a complicated communications protocol.
Therefore, they monitor a packet having a specific data format by operating only the data reception capability, and when they receive the packet having a specific data format, the sleep mode is released and a reception wait status is entered, thereby performing power savings control.
Furthermore, with the above-mentioned system configuration, not only an application and a utility using TCP/IP/UDP but also all using different protocols, for example, Netware, AppleTalk, etc., have to issue a “packet having a specific data format” immediately before issuing a job request (print job).
Therefore, to wake up the devices with such as the above-mentioned one-chip microcomputer, the LAN controller, all of client applications and utilities will require any correction to their programs or any correcting process so that they all can issue a “packet having a specific data format” immediately before issuing a job request (print job).
In addition, no job can be performed from an existing client application to the device (including a printer) which has once entered the sleep status.
On the other hand, in case a “packet having a specific data format” is configured such that the packet can contain data understood by anybody (any network device), the packet is frequently issued over a network, therefore the devices could be easily and frequently waked up from the sleep status (a communication request such as a discovery packet, etc., is frequently issued from a client node especially with w plug and play protocol represented by UPnP (registered trademark), BMLinkS (registered trademark), Rendezvous (registered trademark) used in the network system), thereby failing in realizing the power saving operation aimed at.